In the past, the placing of wall elements, particularly of glass bricks or blocks, has often entailed positioning of spaced-apart short, narrow wooden strips between adjacent ones of a first layer of wall blocks and, thereafter, positioning spaced-apart short, narrow wooden strips on top of the first layer of blocks to provide uniform spacing between the first layer and a similarly arranged second layer of blocks. In some situations, protruding wooden wedges are also used at different locations in the different layers of blocks to maintain the vertical alignment of the finished wall. Between these wooden strips is placed reinforcing bar, if desired or necessary, for strengthening the wall structure, as well as the mortar matrix for bonding the blocks to one another. After the wall is erected to the preferred dimensions and the mortar has partially hardened, the wooden wedges, if used, are removed completely or the protruding portions are removed, thereby usually causing destruction of the strips. This is because the wooden strips must remain in the block wall construction until the mortar has hardened since, otherwise, the wall would settle unevenly thereby essentially destroying the aesthetics of the wall construction. If the mortar becomes very hard, removal of the wedges becomes quite difficult because of the adherence of the mortar to the wedges. A further disadvantage attendant to the use of removable spacer wedges is that their removal leaves behind spaces at the joints between the blocks which must subsequently be filled by additional mortar.
Further, once the mortar hardens, it is virtually impossible to remove the spaced-apart wooden strips used to position the blocks, and the wooden strips become a part of the finished wall. These permanent horizontal strips or spacers, however, fail to provide any means for assuring accurate spacing between adjacent blocks in a single row.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,337 and its corresponding Canadian counterpart, Canadian Patent No. 1,062,930, there is disclosed a wasted spacer member for wall elements, particularly glass bricks or blocks, wherein the spacer member remains embedded in the mortar of the wall construction upon completion of the wall structure. The spacer member consists of two cross-shaped or T-shaped elements lying in parallel planes and joined by a web. The outermost surfaces of the cross or T-shaped elements are intended to lie in planes spaced inwardly from oppositely directed block faces whereby the cross or T-shaped elements will be covered by mortar upon filling of the spaces or joints between the blocks with mortar. The width of the arms forming the cross or T-shaped elements defines the width of the joints between the blocks and any structure surrounding the blocks.
In a preferred embodiment, the spacer member described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,337 also includes either break-off vanes or discs which are attached to and spaced outwardly from the cross or T-shaped elements, such vanes or discs serving to enclose and contact portions of the exposed block faces in order to assist in vertical alignment and guidance of the blocks during placement thereof.
Each of the variously disclosed embodiments of the spacer members described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,337 possess features which are detrimental in one form or another to rapid, efficient and aesthetically pleasing erection of a wall construction formed of a plurality of wall elements, particularly glass blocks, bound to one another by matrix material. For example, if the spacer member of U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,337 is not provided with the aforenoted break-off vanes or discs, then it may well be difficult to assure the spacer member will remain in the desired joint position in which it is placed during wall construction. That is to say, unless extreme care is exercised in block placement, the spacer member is likely to become undesirably displaced along the joint during placement of the blocks such that the blocks themselves will also shift thereby requiring the block and spacer placement operations to be repeated. In addition, the shifting of the blocks will almost inevitably result in contact between the blocks which can easily cause damage to certain wall elements such as glass blocks, and the like.
If, on the other hand, the spacer member disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,337 is provided with the aforementioned break-off vanes or discs, displacement of the spacer member during block placement may be substantially eliminated. However, the break-off vanes or discs is likely to preclude complete joint filling in a single application. Moreover, the break-off vanes or discs need to be physically removed subsequent to partial hardening of the initially placed mortar If the break-off vanes or discs are not broken off cleanly, i.e., portions thereof either remain projecting from the exposed block faces or cannot be effectively covered by the required subsequent joint filling operation, then a worker must perform additional steps to eliminate the unwanted remaining vane or disc material Such a spacer member construction of U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,337 thus requires a number of additional steps to be performed subsequent to initial joint filling with mortar, namely, breaking off the break-off vanes or discs, removing any remaining unwanted vane or disc material, and subsequent filling of any inaccessible joint area originally covered by the break-off vanes or discs.
Another known device for use in spacing block-like construction elements that are bound together by mortar material, or the like, involves the use of a pair of vanes or discs, each having a plurality of inwardly directed prongs. The vanes are slidably supported on a metallic wire with their respective prongs facing one another. In use, the vanes are placed against the outer block walls and the prongs project into the joint spaces and define spacing means for maintaining the blocks at desired horizontal and/or vertical spacing from one another as the construction elements and the mortar are placed. When the mortar is partially hardened, the vanes or discs are removed and the wire is gripped by pliers and withdrawn. The spaces left by the prongs (and wire) are then filled with additional mortar material. While such a device is adjustable to virtually any block width, it suffers from the disadvantage that the vanes slide freely along the wires.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,227,842 describes generally cross-shaped and T-shaped block anchoring members including a plurality of intersecting arms. The arms are either wavy or are provided with bosses that engage with specially formed glass blocks having either wavy surfaces or recesses formed in the circumferential walls thereof. Although the anchoring members serve the ancillary function of spacing adjacent blocks from one another, their practical application is limited to usage only with customized blocks having the aforementioned circumferential wall configurations. If used in connection with glass blocks of conventional construction, the anchor members, which are not provided with means for preventing unwanted lateral displacement on conventional blocks, will likely become displaced along with the block joints resulting in unwanted shifting of the blocks.
A cross-shaped and a T-shaped spacer member are also known, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,793, which include channels that loosely receive a central circumferential glass block seam that is formed by the joining of two block shells in conventional glass block manufacture. The disadvantage of this spacer member construction is much the same as that associated with other conventional spacer members, i.e., because the channels are substantially wider than the block seam (sometimes as much as several times the width of the seam), the channels do not normally positively engage the seam and thus they are of little use in preventing lateral displacement of the spacer members. Therefore, shifting of the spacer members and the blocks spaced thereby is likely unless extreme care is taken in the placement of the blocks and spacer members.
A need exists, therefore, for spacer members for maintaining substantially uniform joint spacing between construction elements during construction of a static structure comprising a plurality of construction elements bound to one another by matrix material, whereby the spacer member remains embedded in and covered by the matrix material and permits the matrix material to be placed in and substantially fill all construction joints in a single application.
A further need exists for spacer members for maintaining substantially uniform joint spacing between construction elements during construction of a static structure comprising a plurality of construction elements bound to one another by a matrix material, whereby the spacer members include means positioned interiorly of the planes of the exposed faces of the construction elements for positively establishing and maintaining desired positions of the spacer members, and thereby the construction elements, during construction of the static structure.